Great advancements have been made in semiconductor technology in the last few years largely due to the discovery of new materials and the discovery of new methods of making better materials. These advances have led to new device applications for semiconducting materials and such applications often require different fabrication techniques. Typically, these techniques are aimed toward obtaining smaller size, more precise location of various geometrical features in the device, more accurate shapes for various geometrical features in the structure, greater adherence of metallic substances to the semiconductor surfaces, etc.
Particularly important is the development of semiconductor devices (e.g., integrated circuits, optoelectronic semiconductor devices, memories) involving III-V semiconductor compounds. Such semiconductor materials have a number of desirable properties including higher mobilities, advantageous optical characteristics, etc. In fabricating devices with III-V semiconductor compounds, it is highly desirable to produce areas of high resistivity in close proximity to areas of n-type conductivity. This can be used to form various kinds of circuits or integrated devices as well as to isolate one type of circuit or part of a circuit from another part of a circuit. Indeed, rapid and convenient production of such features is highly desirable in a number of applications.
There is considerable current interest in the incorporation of hydrogen in semiconductors (see, for example, T. S. Shi et al, Physica Status of Solidi A, Vol. 74, pp. 329-341 (1982); W. L. Hansen et al, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, Vol. NS-29, No. 1, pp. 738-744 (February 1982); J. W. Corbett et al, Physics Letters, Vol. 93A, No. 6, pp. 303-304 (Jan. 24, 1983); and P. S, Peercy, Nuclear Instruments and Methods, Vol. 182, pp. 337-349 (1981)). A number of references have described work in the use of atomic hydrogen in neutralizing various deep level centers due to either line or point defects in various semiconductors (see, for example, J. L. Benton et al, Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 36, No. 8, pp. 670-671 (Apr. 15, 1980); S. J. Pearton et al, Physical Review B, Vol. 26, No. 12, pp. 7105-7108 (Dec. 15, 1982); S. J. Pearton, Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 40, No. 3, pp. 253-255 (Feb. 1, 1982); J. Lagowski et al, Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 41, No. 11, pp. 1078-1080 (Dec. 1, 1982); S. J. Pearton, Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 53, No. 6, pp. 4509-4511 (June 1982); and C. H. Seager et al, Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 52, No. 2, pp. 1050-1055 (1981)). In addition, experiments have been described of the neutralization of boron shallow acceptors in silicon by atomic hydrogen (see, for example, C. Sah et al, Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 43, No. 2, pp. 204-206 (July 15, 1983), and J. I. Pankove et al, Physical Review Letters, Vol. 51, No. 24, pp. 2224-2225 (Dec. 12, 1983)), but these results have been shown to be due to hydroxyl ions and not hydrogen atoms (see W. L. Hansen et al, Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 44, No. 6, pp. 606-608 (Mar. 15, 1984)).
In the fabrication of semiconductor devices with III-V semiconductor compounds, it is highly desirable to have a procedure for neutralizing donor species in III-V compounds so as to create regions of high resistivity, particularly a procedure for precise location of such neutralized region. Also highly desirable is a fabrication procedure where a neutralized region is partly reverted to a donor region, again with high precision as to location of the donor region.